Whimsical
by sovandeprins
Summary: AU It's hard not to make a bad first impression. [COMPLETE]


**Whimsical**

 **Author: sovandeprins**  
 **Beta:** **AerieLately**

 **VVV**

Thirty-seven years. Thirty-seven years he had lived on this planet. Sixteen of those years he lived with his single father, four he lived as a homeless man, two he spent in a committed relationship, and one he drank away. The other fourteen years which came after that, he spent in his currently rented apartment with a part-time job (although this was a recent addition), a shit ton of dogs and two sets of tracksuits to keep himself dressed for the public eye.

All in all, Kakashi felt pretty good about how things had turned out. He read porn, had a few friends and got laid now and then. The rent wasn't through the roof either and the landlord often let him wait a few more days if money was running low.

He was very pleased he could keep seven dogs in a one-man apartment, too. A rather appealing life, if you asked him.

With the pug in his lap, the golden at his feet, Kakashi sipped his Sunday coffee in lack of better things to do. Between his index and middle fingers sat the worn, green-blue book of paradise. He sniffed, coughed and grew just a little warmer as he went through his carefully dog-eared pages.

In the living room the clock ticked rhythmically, then stopped – then started again. He made a mental note to check his sticky notes that were already plastered onto the plastic covering the watch face. One of these days he would change the batteries.

Kakashi jerked with a start as a machine rumbled outside, disturbing the morning's peace. Poor Pakkun the pug yelped and gracelessly fell to the floor.

Placing the cup of coffee on the kitchen table (where circular marks from previous cups already resided), Kakashi went to open up his balcony door and took a step outside. He shielded his one good eye from the harsh sun with his book and tried to see what was causing such a hullaballoo.

Two floors down there sat a large, bulky motorcycle parked in the lot, which – as it turned out – was accompanied bya moving truck.

Less confused than before, although not by much, Kakashi made his way back inside. He patted his largest dog – a very gentle mastiff, going by the name of Bull (he wasn't a very creative man, you see) — and decided that it was none of his business. He flicked the TV on and watched the news.

 **VVV**

"Hey, Kakashi!"

The silver-hairedman valued his off time, and although he would rather walk his compound family in peace, there was one man in this world that could bypass that preference.

"Yo," he greeted over his shoulder, feeling the tug of the leashes in his hands. Behind him, his old friend huffed and laughed as he jogged to catch up.

"My man! My friend!" Gai clasped a firm hand on Kakashi's elbow and almost pulled him hard enough to make him fall backwards. The dogs made a good counterweight. "My, eh . . . brother?" His oversized brows sunk in on each other and his eyes stared intently at the concrete sidewalk. Then, his features brightened. "Yeah! Brother?" He clapped Kakashi hard on the back.

Sheepishly, Kakashi laughed as he caught his breath. "Good to see you too," he offered. He was never good at nicknames, or any names for that matter. Except for dog names – those were _easy_ to come up with, however bland they may turn out. "Enjoying the day?"

"Oh, if I am! With the birds singing, the sun shining high – how could one not enjoy such a pleasant time?" Gai spoke vividly, a glow to his eyes that had never quite left him since childhood. "You're out early, though," he added with meaning, brows wiggling.

It was currently 14:35 – an improvement from when Kakashi usually left the comfort of his home.

He sighed. "Just a lot of noise at home today." He glanced at his friend. "Someone's moving in."

"Oh? A new friend?"

"Hardly."

"How come?"

"They arrived with motorcycle and all. Can only be some spoiled brat," he shrugged.

"Well, aren't you just Mr. Bright Side today?" Gai barked out a loud laugh and the dogs were quick to join him. Behind his hand, Kakashi laughed too.

 **VVV**

He arrived back home later than had insisted they walk to the park to let the dogs run around for a while, which resulted in them ending up with a few beers in their system, which meant that time had been easily forgotten.

He was going to have to give his kids a real washing now, too.

Fumbling to press in the code to enter the closed building, leashes spun around his limbs, Kakashi groaned inwardly. He wasn't a good thinker when drunk. Well, he wasn't really good at _anything_ whilst drunk, truth be told. Numbers easily blended in with letters and he was very confused as to why the code only came to him as 'C', 'H', 'J' and 'B' rather than actual numbers. Everything was so much blurrier than it usually was.

"Come on boys," he mumbled to his brain, knocking his knuckles on the side of his head.

Bull barked, and it seemed to be enough to get him out of whatever world he had been in. Finally translating the letters to numbers – or numbers to letters? – he pushed inside the dim apartment staircase and mechanically worked his way up. Pakkun, being the clever dog that he was, hitched a ride on top of Bull's wrinkly head.

It felt like 30 years had passed when he finally made it all the way up to his door. It had taken him so long to get up to the second floor that the building's automaticlights had shut off and left him and his family in the dark. None of them seemed to mind, though – and it was one less thing to give him a headache. After fishing out his keys with more precision than a man in his state should be able to muster, he stumbled inside. Down on his knees on the 'Oh Shit Not You Again' doormat (which was a _very_ funny gift from Gai three years ago), Kakashi worked through the many collars of his children. The door stood wide open, but one after the other, the dogs trotted inside without looking back.

The hall lights turned back on and footsteps could be heard from downstairs, probably echoing all the way up to the top floor. It even echoed inside his brain, which was quite unpleasant. Focusing all his attention on Shiba's collar – who, you guessed it, was a shiba inu – proved to be the hardest thing he had ever done in his entire life, because it seemed as ifthe echoing of the staircase caused his eyes to shake. Oh, why did he say yes to another beer? _Stupid, stupid, stupid._

"Excuse me?" He nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand gently pressed against his shoulder. The dogs began their singing and Kakashi put his finger in front of his lips and tried his best to hush them in order to get a grip on reality again (he got a wet finger for his efforts, which he dried on his leg). Then he turned where he was, hunched on the floor, and stared into eyes as green as, as . . . as green as an avocado? Underdeveloped bananas? Something like that.

"Huh?" he heard himself grunt and the young woman's kind eyes narrowed.

"What the hell are you doing?" She suddenly probed, politeness thrown out the window. Kakashi wasn't sure he was doing anything at all. He looked at her, then at Shiba who still sat silently and obediently at his hands, then back at her and wondered why on earth her hair looked pink – he then turned back to his dog and wondered why on earth he _wasn't_ pink.

"Sleeping," he eventually replied, in a matter-of-factly tone. Silence followed and the girl whose hair looked pink opened her mouth, but he caught up with himself before she could speak. "Goodnight," he amended, then awkwardly reached for the door handle to shut the door – it bumped into his shoes but he made the smooth choice of swearing before leaving the girl he'd never seen before in the hallway.

For a few minutes (or maybe hours, he wasn't sure), Kakashi stared at Shiba silently. Then, he freed the last of his dogs and dragged himself up to his feet. He slumped against the wall as he took off his shoes, placed his forehead on the bathroom mirror as he brushed his teeth, and buried his face into stuffing-less pillows as he let sleep take him over.

 **VVV**

The next morning he sat with his feet flung over his balcony railing. His clothes had been soaked after washing up all of the dogs, but the sun was doing a fine job of drying them while he basked in its heat with a book over his face.

On the neighboring balcony sat the newest addition to the apartment complex: the pink-haired girl, as it would turn hummed along to horrible music that didn't sound like music at all, the sound coming through her open patio door. Sometimes she seemed to talk to herself, while sipping on tea that he could smell from where he sat.

He didn't mind.

 **VVV**

 **FIN**


End file.
